A89737:696
The orthodox evangelist. Or A treatise wherein many great evangelical truths (not a few…
The orthodox evangelist. Or A treatise wherein many great evangelical truths (not a few whereof are much opposed and eclipsed in this perilous hour of the passion of the Gospel) are briefly discussed, cleared, and confirmed: as a further help, for the begetting, and establishing of the faith which is in Jesus. As also the state of the blessed, where; of the condition of their souls from the instant of their dissolution: and of their persons after their resurrection. By John Norton, teacher of the church at Ipswich in New England.The orthodox evangelist. Or A treatise wherein many great evangelical truths (not a few whereof are much opposed and eclipsed in this perillous hour of the passion of the Gospel) are briefly discussed, cleared, and confirmed: as a further help, for the begeting, and establishing of the faith which is in Jesus. As also the state of the blessed, where; of the condition of their souls from the instant of their dissolution: and of their persons after their resurrection. By John Norton, teacher of the church at Ipswich in New England.
London: printed by John Macock for Henry Cripps, 1654
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Notwithstanding Preparatory Repentance worketh not ⟨p. 154⟩any change of the heart, yet there are in it, and accompanying of it, certain inward workings, that do dispose to a change. Ignorance is taken away by illumination; pleasure in sin, is abated by sorrow for sin, that is, trouble of conscience: Boldness in sinning is abated by the fear of punishment: whence followeth a kind of abating the contumacy of the will, like a stone that is broken, though it yet remains a stone. Conceitedness in our own strength, is diminished by the sense of our lost condition False confidence by the conviction of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Ministerial, and preparatory hope of the change of the heart by grace, is increased by our restlessness in our present condition, and occasioning an application of our selves to the obtaining of mercy in the use of means.
Notwithstanding Preparatory Repentance worketh not ⟨p. 154⟩any change of the heart, yet there are in it, and accompanying of it, certain inward workings, that do dispose to a change. Ignorance is taken away by illumination; pleasure in sin, is abated by sorrow for sin, that is, trouble of conscience: Boldness in sinning is abated by the fear of punishment: whence followeth a kind of abating the contumacy of the will, like a stone that is broken, though it yet remains a stone. Conceitedness in our own strength, is diminished by the sense of our lost condition False confidence by the conviction of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Ministerial, and preparatory hope of the change of the heart by grace, is increased by our restlesness in our present condition, and occasioning an application of our selves to the obtaining of mercy in the use of means.
Lostness is a principal part of Preparatory Work,1 whereby the soul besides the Work of the Law, is further made sensible of its perishing condition, by the common work of the Gospel. So revealing Jesus Christ to be believed in, as withal, convincing the soul of the loss of its own righteousness, the want of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, together with its inability and enmity to believe, repent, do, or desire any good: whereby, the soul is yet more meetly disposed, for the waiting for, receiving of, and magnifying of received mercy.